10 Players That Were Suppose To Be Celtics

It seems that during every free agency and every trade deadline, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers are always in the news. Some of the proposed trades do actually happen, while other gain very little traction. Here are 10 players that were supposed to have been in the green and white, but never did…..

Wilt Chamberlain- Red Auerbach was so obsessed with Wilt the Stilt, that Red was trying to lure Chamberlain to a New England college, so that the Celtics would be able to pick him up in the territorial draft while Wilt was still in high school.

Kevin Durant- The Celtics had the second worst record in 2007 and had high hopes of getting the #1 pick. The rage was all Greg Oden that year, but Ainge liked KD as a better long term player. The Celtics lost big draft night and fell to #5 and drafted Georgetown player, Jeff Green and then sent him to Seattle in exchange for Ray Allen. So we will never know if Ainge would have actually had the guts to choose Durant over Oden with the number 1 pick.

Monta Ellis- Back in 2010, the C’s were offered by Golden State Monta Ellis in exchange for Ray Allen. The Warriors saw rookie Steph Curry as their future and felt it was better if Monta went somewhere else. The Celtics at the time were looking to get younger, so they did consider doing the deal, but decided in the end to stick it out with Ray instead.

Dwight Howard- Celtics tried multiple times to sign Howard in free agency, but were never able to match his asking salary price. The Celtics at the time had Pierce and KG making 20+ million a year, so adding a 3rd player at that price would have made big problems for the front office.

Reggie Miller- In the 2007 offseason, in which the Celtics teamed up KG and Ray with Paul Pierce, the Celtics held talks with a 42-year old retired Reggie Miller. The Celtics were looking to add some three point shooters to play some limited minutes, but Miller passed.

Carmelo Anthony- So the Celtics had done a multiple player trade with the Nuggets back in 2001. As part of the deal, the Celtics received a 1st round pick that could have been used anywhere from 2001-2003. The Celtics decided to use that pick in 2001 to draft community college star (that’s right they drafted a C.C. player in the lottery) on Kedrick Brown. Had the Celtics held on to that pick and waited until 2003, they could have chosen Carmelo.

Scottie Pippen- The Bulls front office were very interested in the Celtics 2 lottery picks back in 1997 (which ended up being Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer at #3 and #6) and offered Scottie Pippen in exchange. The Celtics did think about going through with the trade, but MJ went to the Bulls front office and told them to forget about it.

Michael Jordan- So this is by far the craziest one on the list. Back in 1988, when MJ was winning scoring titles but not having great success in the playoffs, some fans (notice we said some not all) were calling for MJ to be traded for someone who had championship experience. MJ at the time was seen just as a monster scorer who could never lead his team to a title. The player SOME Bulls fans and sports radio hosts wanted to trade MJ for? Larry Bird, just imagine that.

Kobe Bryant- The Celtics actually worked Kobe out before the draft, but in the end choose to draft Antoine Walker instead. In 2006, the Cs tried another time to score Kobe by offering in a deal Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce for Kobe at a time where both Pierce and Kobe were talking about wanting out from their teams. The Celtics tried to execute that trade before the 2006 draft.

Tony Parker- On draft night, the Celtics went to Parker and told him that he was going to be their late 1st round draft pick. They even gave him a Celtics hat before the pick was announced. At the last second, Parker’s Celtics hat was taken back and the Celtics drafted UNC guard Joe Forte instead. Forte played just 25 games in the NBA while Parker won 4 NBA championships.